Introduction

Potential of the Internet. The internet can do as much good for mankind as the printing press has done in advancing access to information. Already, the internet has made this world "smaller"; making it possible to have a truly global community in the future.

We should never forget however that the internet is a mere technology (medium); whether we realize its potentials will depend on how we put it into use.

Use and abuse of technology. An analogy that comes to mind is the origins of the "discovery and use" of nuclear power. Even if one can justify its role in ending the war with Japan, it was unfortunate that its first practical use by mankind was as a power for destruction. Thus, even if nuclear power has been put to good use in other endeavors, how could we ever forget what "evil" it can do to mankind? It did not help, that during the past few decades, we have witnessed some of the most horrible dangers of nuclear power -- Windscale in Great Britain, Three-mile Island in the United States, Chernobyl in Russia, the nuclear disaster in Japan and countless other incidents that have not gained as much media coverage -- all because of neglect or unwise cost-cutting measures taken to maximize profit.

As a result, even some rational scientists have seen mainly the potential dangers of nuclear power rather than the good it could do. Imagine how different our attitudes would have been to nuclear power if nuclear power has first demonstrated its potential in noble endeavors like cancer cure, sanitation, food preservation, etc.

Information is power. Whoever controls the shaping of the databases of information (note 1) that defines a country also dictates the fate of the nation and its people. To illustrate this point, the Philippines is referred to still as the "Philippine Islands" by many foreigners, international institutions, organizations, governments, publications and internet sites. While seemingly innocuous, "Philippine Islands" conjures an obscure collection of islands somewhere in the world and emphasizes the colonial past of the Philippines, as if it still remains a colony of a superpower, like the United States. Other simple terms, like "bandidos", "brown race", "insurrection", "insurrectos", etc. — integrated in historical books and other publications written by foreigners about the Philippines and Filipinos — have immense impact on how foreigners (and even Filipinos) view the Philippines and Filipino people.
This perception of the Philippines and the Filipino people continues to be reflected in many of the more popular commercial internet sites or even in some academic archives. Many of these sites have very scarce information about the Philippines and Filipinos; if any at all, they are based mainly from outside or dated sources. As a result, the body of information seldom reflect the perspective of Filipinos. At worst, they are inaccurate or antiquated.